“Are you ready to build our first inclusive playground?” Stacey Cole asks. “I’m very ready. I’ve been ready since 2018.”

“Love the trees until their leaves fall off, then encourage them to try again next year.”

Awe, the innocence of a child and the look of wonderment across their face can be priceless and so it was for this grandmother when her 5-year-old granddaughter, Emory, asked if she would be writing any more books. Her reply to the child was, “Yes, I do plan on writing more. In fact, I have just written one and the title is the ‘Farting Four-Toed Troll.’”

Some time ago, people popularly wore and asked the question, “What would Jesus do?” Regarding the clothing, some said, “Jesus wouldn’t wear that!”, but a good answer to the question perhaps is more thoughtful.

War has come to my yard!  But this battle doesn’t involve modern conventional weapons with individual rounds of ammunition that cost almost as much as my eldest and most expensive daughter’s wardrobe.  Instead, this is a battle against one of the most annoying forces of nature known to man–the scourge of autumn leaves. 

The third annual Reel East Texas Film Festival is underway this week with several days of film screenings, events and awards. Filmmakers from across the state and the country are descending on Kilgore to screen their films, answer audience questions and network with other filmmakers.

It was more than just a blast from the past: Big Boy No. 4014 rolled into Overton with a rumble, a roar and a scream of steam.

“Trains are wonderful... To travel by train is to see nature and human beings, towns and churches and rivers, in fact, to see life.”

Twenty years after Kilgore was caught up in a storm of controversy surrounding a college play featuring gay characters, Kilgore College's theater department will present “The Laramie Project”, a play based on a town’s reaction to the 1998 murder of gay Wyoming college student Matthew Shephard.

It was Veterans Day, yes, but Victor Boyd shared a memorial as well.

While he was serving in the U.S. Navy aboard the USS Wisconsin, the Kilgore native remembers the day – April 19, 1989 – when an explosion rocked the battleship Iowa, his former assignment. “47 men died that day,” he told the men and women gathered for this year’s Veterans Day ceremony Monday morning at Harris Street Park. “Out of those 47 men, 26 of them I knew personally. So, I vow to always remember the Iowa 47.”

He stepped up to the podium on stage in the fellowship hall of First Baptist Church in Kilgore with a slide presentation well-prepared to capture the attention of a large crowd of listeners.  The 1961 KHS graduate began to talk about a subject dear to his heart and one he had approached before only this time his presentation began with Bible verses and the importance of God’s presence at NASA.

In 1935, the city commission – in those days a three-man (all male until Janice Hancock was elected more than six decades later) panel – agreed the city needed a motor grader. As is custom, they solicited bids and received three: $3003.50, $3006.50 and $3006.50. Ultimately, they bought the grader for $3006.50 and we’re left to wonder why that one bidder failed to get the memo.

Nothing to see here, folks. No collusion here, move along.

Kilgore Main Street is once again inviting visitors to ‘Shop Small, Win Big’ by supporting downtown businesses, and the effort’s even bigger in its second year.

“People want to be told what to do so badly that they’ll listen to anyone.”

“I cannot be an optimist, but I am a prisoner of hope.” These words spoken by Dr. Cornel West of Harvard Divinity School obviously assume a conceptual difference between optimism and hope. What is the difference? Are Christians called to be optimists or people of hope? Can we be both, or should we choose one over the other?

They’re some of downtown Kilgore’s biggest fans, regular attendees and participants in events during the past several years. Vivian and Fred Gebhardt have been angling to put down roots in the Main Street District for a couple of years, but it was a matter of finding the right fit.

“United wishes and good will cannot overcome brute facts. The truth is incontrovertible. Malice may attack it, ignorance may deride it, but in the end, there it is.”

Spend $25 or more at participating locations to net a golden ticket. Drop tickets off at one of three prize barrel locations for chances at one of Kilgore Main Street’s prize, including one valued at more than $1,200

A religious symposium held Sunday on the Kilgore College campus dealt with a contentious issue in the modern church, at times sparking animated discussions.

Kilgore High School’s Health Science Club hosted a Marathon Challenge sign-up and kick-off event Saturday, Oct. 26 to encourage others to take charge of their fitness.

“If I could turn back time / If I could find a way / I’d take back those words that hurt you / And you’d stay.”

There is a reason the Liberty City community was once known as Hog Eye Country, and as of late the name has been revived as the area once again is being inundated with wild hogs.

People are anxious and tired. They want and need peace and rest. God the Father freely offers both through faith in His Son Jesus Christ by the power of His Holy Spirit.

Local parade-planners are putting their organizational skills to the test once again as they recruit entries for events in Kilgore and Liberty City. At Kilgore Chamber of Commerce, there’s a little more than a month until the 89th annual Kilgore Christmas Parade rolls out at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 3. In the Sabine area, firefighters are getting prepped to get moving at 2:30 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 8.

Now that America is deep into the bowels of football season, I’m experiencing my yearly gastrointestinal angst about my Texas A&M Aggies. I call them “my” Texas A&M Aggies because I spent an untold amount of my parents’ cash in College Station on textbooks, apartment rent, and Double Dave’s pizza rolls in my pursuit of a Bachelor of Arts in English (yes, English) from Texas A&M University.

You can’t keep a good fan down.

“Do all the good you can. By all the means you can. In all the ways you can. In all the places you can. At all the times you can. To all the people you can. As long as ever you can.”

A tall, draft Bud Light with a shot of Jameson – it’s an order bartender Justin Dykes will never forget, thanks to the $2,000 tip his customer left behind.

All of us who claim a faith are theologians. Yes, you, even you, are a theologian! Before I define the word theologian, we must understand the word theology.

Kilgore ISD hosted its annual Hispanic Heritage Festival Oct. 22 in Kilgore City Park.

“Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.”

Earlier in this millenium, Mayor Ronnie Spradlin and our dear pal Jean Laird decided Kilgore’s municipal finery should include a coat of daffodils. Together they ordered a huge quantity of daffodil bulbs and set about turning Kilgore yellow.

They came, those that could. One more time they came to sit under the giant oak that adorned the home of Dorothy Mitchell. It was a spot they had gathered before on numerous occasions to visit with friends and family, to hold reunions and more importantly to hand down history to the next gen…

Kilgore’s dog park is going to be re-homed in the next six months, moving away from an area that, far too often, earns the nickname ‘Lake Meadowbrook.’

Kilgore High School’s Health Science Club is hosting a marathon challenge Saturday, October 26 to encourage others to take charge of their fitness

“Time is the substance I am made of. Time is a river which sweeps me along, but I am the river; it is a tiger which destroys me, but I am the tiger; it is a fire which consumes me, but I am the fire.”

Jump-scare classics, comedy and even some family-friendly frights: there’s an eclectic mix of films on the schedule for Kilgore College’s first Horror Movie Festival. The five-day event kicks-off Friday evening in Dodson with one scary movie nightly in addition to an all-ages matinee Sunday afternoon.

In connection with a televised town-hall on LGBTQ+ issues earlier this month, Democratic presidential hopeful Beto O’Rourke said that he was in favor of revoking the tax-exempt status of churches that oppose same-sex “marriage”. Aside from the arguments for and against churches’ in general having such tax-exempt status, the federal government’s denying particular churches’ tax-exempt status because of what they teach or do certainly seems to be contrary to the First Amendment of the United States Constitution’s prohibition of “establishing” one religion or permitting another’s free exercise.